Slavery, Then And Now

Not being a regular moviegoer, much preferring the tightly-scripted fare offered on cable that is adult in the best sense of the word, I only know from media reports that 12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for Best Picture. According to the Internet Movie Database, it is about the following:

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

While not intending in any way to minimize the terrible suffering and exploitation suffered by black people in the United States then and now, it would be remise of me not to point out that here in Canada, we have our own form of slavery, which we call unpaid internships.

While I have written about corporate exploitation of young people's desperation before, this seems a propitious time for an update. As reported in The Toronto Star, unpaid internships appear to be on the rise throughout Canada, thanks to a patchwork of regulations and the reluctance of interns to 'blow the whistle' on their corporate exploiters lest they withhold their much-coveted letters of reference.

According to some estimates there are "as many as 300,000 people currently working for free at some of the country’s biggest, and wealthiest, corporations."

Perhaps this egregious example serves as emblematic of the sorts of abuses that are taking place:

Last fall, Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront Hotel sparked an uproar after it posted an ad seeking people to bus tables for free.

“As a busperson you will take pride in the integral role you play in supporting your food and beverage colleagues and ‘setting the stage’ for a truly memorable meal.” The ad was quickly taken down amid a social-media furor.

Isabelle Couture and James Attfield, both University of Victoria students in the Master’s of Public Public Administration program, are conducting a survey for the Canadian Research Association. They discovered, much to their surprise, that unpaid internships are being tracked neither at the provincial nor the federal level. And the need for organized tracking is great:

“When you ask a lot of these companies, like Bell — which has a massive internship program — they make it sound like they’re doing people a favour, that they’re generously providing work and experience,” says Attfield.

“But it’s really nothing more than a way to save money; they’re obviously not doing it out of generosity.”

Ma Bell, of course, repudiates such odious suggestions of corporate malfeasance:

A Bell spokeswoman says its internship program, which employs about 300 people a year, “offers learning opportunities in a real-world corporate setting. None of the participants’ activities replace work by Bell employees or support our business operations.”

Hmm. I guess that begs the question of what all those young people at Bell are doing while interning there. Sharpening pencils, perhaps?

There may be some relief on the way. On Tuesday, Ontario New Democrat MPP Jonah Schein introduced a private member's bill (no word yet on whether party leader Howath has yet tested the political winds to see where she stands on the issue) introduced a private member's bill that calls for the following:

- Grant unpaid interns more protections under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, such as regular work day, eating periods, and holidays

- Require employers to provide written notice to the Ontario government when they take on unpaid interns. This would assist the Ministry of Labour with data collection and enforcement.

- Create a complaint system that allows complaints to be submitted by third parties and interns anonymously

- Require employers to post a poster with information about intern’s rights in Ontario in the workplace prepared by the Ministry of Labour

And on the federal level, last fall Toronto MP Andrew Cash introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-542, calling on the government to establish a legal framework for the labour laws that govern what has become the new normal in the Canadian job market: precarious employment. Cash calls his proposal the Urban Workers Strategy.

Will any of these efforts bear fruit? Given the current mentality pervading all political parties (and yes, that includes the NDP) whereby businesses and corporations, not people, are now the chief objects of government ministrations, I am not especially hopeful. But, as with all worthwhile causes, it is crucial that the fights for the betterment of people be vigorously conducted.

Otherwise, we might as well all admit defeat and just give ourselves over totally to the forces that care not a whit for any of us.

We Have A Responsibility

As we go about our daily lives, the majority of us, I suspect, share a hierarchy of concerns ranging in priority from the health and well-being of our loved ones, to ourselves, and to our fellow humans. It is probably the latter than many of us pay only lip service to, not necessarily just because we may not feel a real emotional connection to strangers, but also because we are often perplexed as to how we can have a meaningful impact on the lives of those who may be less fortunate. True, as a nation we tend to give generously to causes with our wallets, perhaps more aware than other countries, thanks to our values of collectivism over individualism, of our interconnectedness.

But sometimes real help can only be possible after a lengthy time spent becoming aware of and researching issues and policy choices that we entrust to our government representatives who, at least in theory, represent us.

I was prompted to think about these things today as I read a thought-provoking piece by The Star's Carol Goar entitled Ontario neglecting its most vulnerable workers.

Her first two paragraphs were provocative:

Roughly 1.7 million workers in the province — 1 out of 5 — have little or no protection from bosses who pay them less than the minimum wage, compel them to work on statutory holidays without overtime and don’t allow them time off for illness, a family emergency or the death of a loved one.

Some of these inhumane practices happen within the bounds of Ontario’s gap-ridden Employment Standards Act. Some happen illegally because the rules are so poorly enforced.

She goes on to discuss some of the improvements made in 2009 under Dalton McGuinty's poverty reduction strategy, improvements that were undermined a year later by the same government's passage of the “Open for Business Act” that heightened the risk of reprisals if exploited workers sought redress.

There is a glimmer of hope, reports Goar:

Fortunately there is a new thrust for reform. The Law Commission of Ontario has just released the first draft of a report entitled Vulnerable Workers and Precarious Work. It is a response to the plight of the lowest paid, least protected members of the labour force — typically immigrants, ethno-racial minorities and single parents — and to employment lawyers who lack the tools to help them.

Unfortunately, as she also reports, Dalton McGuinty's government will be under no obligation to accept the suggested reforms that the report addresses.

Which is why an informed citizenry, aware of the injustices and involved enough to try to exert some influence on the government, is paramount. To be sure, such a hope may be very idealistic, but I cannot help but ask what other avenues are there in a democracy such as ours?